I know, I know. Thanksgiving is over and you’ve had it with heavy, homemade, homestyle, or any recipe that can be labeled “Mom’s Famous ____________”.  Unfortunately, the feeding frenzy has only begun – holiday party time is here, so let the marathon of gluttony begin! You’re probably going to need a pie crust recipe sooner or later this winter, and when you do this is a great one – originally published two years ago in the New York Times as part of one woman’s obsessive quest to bake a perfect pie crust.

For a long time I irrationally feared the crust – and it’s my mother’s fault. Ever since I can remember, she has contended that making a crust from scratch is impossible and something that only my grandmother (whom my grandfather frequently tricks into spontaneous pie baking just by leaving a full bag of apples on the kitchen counter – can’t let those apples go to waste!) is capable of doing.

As a result, I only started making pies when the New York Times article inspired me. And the experience has not been harrowing. My pies get better and better, every single time.

Here are a few tips I have learned along the way: 1 – keep everything extremely cold at all times (meaning – refrigerate the mixing bowl, pie plate, and utensils in advance, ice the water, turn off the heat in the kitchen, and be willing to throw the thing back into the fridge at any given moment. 2 – do not add one drop more water than necessary, as it will make even the most flaky dough tough. 3 – do not be tempted to use shortening, which is not real food and tastes gross, I don’t care what it does for asthetics. 4 – do not be afraid to abandon your food processor and leave many visible lumps of butter in your crust.

The way to refrigerate the dough that I have found most effective is the following (as illustrated in the photos above): First, wrap the the dough in a ball (or two if you are doing a double crust as I am here) and put it in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Then take it out and press it into a flat disk rewrap, and place back into the fridge for at least an hour. This way, when you remove it again and are ready to roll it out, you have far less issues with the edges separating.

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out, roll out from the center going around the perimeter of the circle. You can either roll the dough onto the rolling pin to transfer to the pie plate, or you can quarter it, as I have done here. Be gentle and nothing should go wrong. If it does, do not panic! Carefully knead any rips back together using a little flour. Transfer the bottom crust to the pie plate and form it as if you would if you were about to fill it. Let the crust that you will eventually shape along the perimeter slump into the pie plate and return to the fridge. Roll out the top crust and return it to the fridge between two pieces of saran wrap.

I picked apple pie this year, and yes, I know, how cliche. The thing is, apples are the best thing going at the greenmarket these days, and the other dessert that I made for this meal already involved a squash. I picked a combination of apples for the pie – Golden Delicious, Macoun, and Braeburn. I wanted a really tall pie, so I used eight apples for a 12 inch pie plate.

I seasoned the apples with 1/2 cup sugar, two teaspoons cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon allspice, which is how my grandmother does it.

I tossed my apples, sugar, and spices in a bowl to evenly coat each piece.

The pie should only go into the oven when it has reached 425 degrees. Let it bake for 15 minutes at that temperature before turning the oven down to 350. This will ensure that the pie is flaky.

Trim the edges so they hang only a half inch off the pie plate (NOT shown above).

Fold the edges in and work your way around the pie, crimping the edges with your fingers. Make sure to create a good seal between the two crusts to hold the pie juices in. Bake with a cookie sheet underneath to save yourself from having to scrub baked-on, rogue juices from the bottom of the oven. Watch the pie through the window of the oven for signs of burning. If you think the top is getting golden too fast, cover the pie with tin foil and remove only for the last ten minutes.

This pie was almost perfect. The fatal flaw was only that I added a touch too much water in the crust making process, which left me with a crust that was, perplexingly, flaky while still being a little too tough. Lesson learned. After all, pie making is an art that my 96 year old grandmother still practices, and even for her, the results are slightly different each time.

All-Butter Pie Crust

Adapted from the NYT article Heaven in a Pie Pan: The Perfect Crust by Melissa Clark

Time: 15 minutes plus one hour’s chilling

1 1/4cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, preferably a high-fat, European-style butter like Plugra, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 to 5 tablespoons ice water.

1. In a food processor, briefly pulse together the flour and salt. Add butter and pulse until mixture forms chickpea-size pieces (3 to 5 one-second pulses). Add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture is just moist enough to hold together.
2. Form dough into a ball, wrap with plastic and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before rolling out and baking.
Yield: One 9-inch single pie crust. Recipe can be doubled for a double crust; divide dough into two balls and form two disks before chilling.
Variations: You can experiment with textures and flavors by substituting 3 to 4 tablespoons shortening, lard, beef suet, duck fat or an unsweetened nut butter, such as hazelnut butter, almond butter or mixed nut butter, for 3 to 4 tablespoons regular butter. All should be well chilled before using. (This blogger encourages fat experimentation with natural fats but strongly discourages shortening)

3. Pie should be baked at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduced to 350 degrees and baked for an additional 20-30 minutes. The pie is ready when the contents is bubbling and the crust is a golden brown.

This Blogger’s Apple Filling

3 Golden Delicious apples

3 Macoun apples

2 Braeburn apples

2 Fiji apples

Juice from 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon allspice

1/2 cup sugar